Risk-benefit assessment template

Fire circle

Fire is not an optional extra you tolerate. It is one of the reasons the children come. Assess it so that you can keep it.

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Free. Edit it, sign it and use it on your sessions.

Every control below exists so the fire can happen, not so it can be quietly dropped. That is what makes this a risk-BENEFIT assessment. A fire circle removed because removing it was easier is a loss to the children, and it should be recorded as one.

This assumes a contained fire in a fixed circle with a seated ring, an adult on the fire at all times, and water within arm's reach.

Benefits of the experience

Write yours before you write the hazards.

Fire respect is learned by being near fire, supervised, inside clear boundaries. It cannot be learned from a worksheet.
Confidence and self-regulation: a child who can manage themselves around a fire has learned something that generalises.
The fire circle is where the talking happens. Ask any leader where the best conversations of the day are.
Warmth and a hot drink in winter is the difference between a session children endure and one they ask for.

Hazards, controls and residual risk

Severity (S) and Likelihood (L) are each scored 1–3 and multiplied into a Risk Rating (RR). Low is 1–3, Medium 4–6, Significant 7–9. The final column is what is left after your controls, which is the number that matters.

Experience / activity	Hazards	Associated risks	S	L	RR	Control actions	Risk after controls
Lighting and tending a fire	Open flame Sparks Clothing catching	Burns to hands, face or airway Smoke inhalation	3	2	6	Fixed fire circle with a seating ring and a 1 m no-go zone marked with logs, not imagination. Step OVER the seating ring, never into the circle. Taught before the fire is lit, every session. One adult on the fire, all the time. Not also doing the register. Water bucket and burns kit within arm's reach, not in the bag by the gate. Long hair tied back. No trailing sleeves or synthetic fleeces near the flame.	Medium (3)
After the fire	Embers Hot ground and hot stones	Burns from ground that looks cold	2	2	4	Fire put out with water and stirred through, then checked. Never left to burn down unattended. Fire area stays out of bounds until it is cold to the back of a hand.	Low (2)
Smoke	Smoke from a damp or badly built fire	Irritation Breathing difficulty for asthmatics	2	2	4	Seating placed with the wind, and moved when the wind moves. Asthmatics identified before the session; inhalers on site with the first aid kit. Dry, seasoned wood only. A smoky fire is usually a wet fire.	Low (2)
Fire spreading	Ground fire Overhanging branches Dry conditions	Uncontrolled fire Damage to the woodland	3	1	3	Fire circle cleared to bare earth, nothing overhanging above it. No fire in prolonged dry conditions, and never on peat. Agree that line before the day. Landowner's permission for fire, in writing, and confirmed each season.	Low (1)

The scoring key

Severity (S)

3 Death or major injury
2 Permanent disability or serious injury
1 Minor injury

Likelihood (L)

3 Occurs repeatedly
2 Will or could occur
1 Unlikely, though conceivable

Risk Rating (RR = S × L)

7–9 Significant
4–6 Medium
1–3 Low

What this template cannot know

Risk assessments are site-specific. This one is a starting point, so don't copy it unchanged. Before you sign anything, work out the following for your wood and your group:

Whether your landowner permits fire AT ALL, and under what conditions. Get it in writing.
Where your fire circle is, what is above it, and what the ground beneath it is (never peat).
Your water source, and whether you carry it in.
Today's group: asthma, additional needs, anyone new to the fire.
Today's conditions: wind direction and strength, and how dry the ground is.

Then put your name on it, date it, and set a review date. The assessment belongs to the person who signs it, which is you.

The paperwork around it

The taught form has a header before the table: the activity, the group, who carried the assessment out, the date it was written, the review frequency (annually is typical), the date it was last reviewed, a signature, and any other assessments it refers to. Your site assessment sits under all of your activity assessments, so name it here.

An assessment nobody has signed or reviewed won't stand up if anyone asks. At the review, use the near-misses you logged during the term to make next year's version better.

Write it once. Stack it on every session.

Keep your assessments as a reusable library, stack the right ones onto each session (the session keeps a copy of the version you used), and log the calls you make on the day, offline. Free for practitioners, never per child.

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